The Stanford Faculty

David Starr Jordan was appointed president in March 1891, and by June his first faculty — 15 men of “youth and scholarly promise” — had accepted appointments. Jordan sought professors who combined abilities for teaching and research, and he wrote, “Mr. Stanford wants me to get the best. He wants no ornamental or idle professors.”

Today, Stanford has 2,219 members of the professoriate faculty. Faculty at Stanford are expected to be among the best teachers and researchers in their fields. There are 611 faculty members appointed to endowed chairs.

Stanford’s current community of scholars includes:

17 Nobel laureates

31 MacArthur Fellows

4 National Humanities Medal recipients

4 Pulitzer Prize winners

16 National Medal of Science recipients

1 National Medal of Technology recipients

284 American Academy of Arts and Sciences members

169 National Academy of Sciences members

108 National Academy of Engineering members

77 National Academy of Medicine members

26 National Academy of Education members

47 American Philosophical Society members

5 Wolf Foundation Prize winners

2 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

1 National Medal of Arts winner

By the numbers

Nobel Laureates

Thirty-one Stanford faculty have won the Nobel Prize since the university’s founding. Nineteen Nobel laureates are currently members of the Stanford community. For more details, please visit our Stanford Nobel Prize website.

Pulitzer Prize Winners

Adam Johnson
2013, Fiction

David M. Kennedy
2000, History

Jack Rakove
1997, History

James Risser
1976, 1979, National Reporting

Last updated 3 weeks ago

NOBEL LAUREATES

Four Stanford winners of the Nobel Prize are (left to right) Andrew Fire, Roger Kornberg, Michael Levitt and Brian Kobilka.